


There Are No Heroes

by ImpyTricky (rychuu)



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Kokichi doesn't actually die but he is definitely going to, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-08 22:20:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20842934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rychuu/pseuds/ImpyTricky
Summary: Heroes and villains, no matter how different they are, meet death one way or another. Or maybe, they weren’t so different to begin with.





	There Are No Heroes

As Kaito dragged Kokichi’s weakened, fragile body across the floor, as his blood smeared red across the cold floor, as he hoisted Kokichi up the stairs, Kaito came to that conclusion. In the situation where they lived or died, laughed or cried, that fact would always remain the same.

Each and every step, each and every drop of blood that splattered onto the floor as Kokichi balanced himself at the controls to the hydraulic press.

There were no heroes. There were no villains.

There were only children preparing themselves to die.

As Kokichi stood, his entire body was shaking. He was just barely able to stand with that arrow to the middle of his spine. In all honesty, Kaito was surprised that Kokichi could stand at all through the pain he surely felt. Yet whenever he saw the determined, hardened expression Kokichi wore, that surprise melted into grief.

There was no turning back from their plot now.

“Okay, I… I got it,” Kokichi murmured under his breath, snarling from the pain that twisted in his eyes. “I… I got it. You get under the press, and we can get this started.”

Kaito was hesitant to leave Kokichi there, but that hesitance was brief. They had a plan to stick to. There was no time for him to be idling around.

As Kaito walked down the stairs, he shrugged his jacket off of his shoulders. Reaching the press, he rested the jacket on its surface, frowning at the galaxy print he oh so adored. He clenched his fists, feeling his hands shaking.

He was never going to get to space.

He felt his eyes water at the thought, but he choked them back and climbed onto the metal slab, laying himself on his back.

“How’s it look?” Kaito called out to Kokichi, trying to glance up at him. It was difficult with the angle. “Can you see me?”

Kokichi groaned, and though he looked over to Kaito to check, Kaito could tell that his eyes were unfocused. “… Yeah, looks good. Now, shut up until the press stops.”

Kaito pressed his lips together into a thin line, but he nodded once and closed his eyes. He felt his heart jump into his throat when he hear the press jump to life.

He heard it move, slow and steady, and it took every ounce of willpower Kaito had not to cry out in fear or react. Even when his mind started racing, even when he was afraid that Kokichi might just drop dead where he stood and wouldn’t stop the press, Kaito remained still.

Lower and lower, louder and louder, and just when Kaito thought his fears were being realized, he heard the machine come to a screeching halt.

“… Okay, it’s good.” He heard Kokichi call out to him. “It’s ready to… to…”

Kokichi’s voice trailed off and soon, Kaito heard a loud  _ thud _ echo throughout the hanger.

Alarmed, Kaito’s eyes shot open and he tried to look up at the control panel, but the top half of the press was blocking most of his view. However, he was just barely able to see Kokichi collapsed on the floor.

“Kokichi!”

Kaito sprang into action, though careful not to move the jacket and ruin their trick, and rushed back up the stairs and right to Kokichi’s side. He was barely breathing, and his eyes were squeezed shut.

“Kokichi, Kokichi!” Kaito called out, gathering him up into his arms. “No, shit, dude, you can’t die yet–”

Kaito was interrupted by the sound of a soft sob. The boy in his arms was crying,  _ wheezing, _ and pathetically clinging on to the fabric of his jacket just above his chest.

“… Kokichi?” Kaito was at a loss, unsure of what to do. If he should even do anything. “Hey, Kokichi–”

“Shut— _ shut up,” _ Kokichi snarled, gritting his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut tighter. “I’m—I’m fine, I just… fell over, and it hurts—Gh…!” Kokichi started coughing, hacking up blood into his hand. An all too familiar sight that Kaito empathized with. “Just… just help me back up, and…”

Kokichi opened his eyes, and immediately, they fell onto the hydraulic press. “… Help me to… to the… the…”

Kaito wasn’t sure how, but Kokichi’s face somehow managed to drain of even more color than the poison had already leeched out from him, and Kokichi started trembling. Eyes wide, fixated on the press, and lips parted ever so slightly. As if he wanted to speak, but being too petrified to do so.

A protective instinct stirred in Kaito’s chest, and his mind started reeling. Was there really no hope for Kokichi? Was there really going to be yet another meaningless death—even if Kokichi was sacrificing his own life in an attempt to stop the Killing Game dead in its tracks. Was Kokichi’s life a useless sacrifice, in that regard?

The answer Kaito found within his chest brought tears to his eyes.

“… Where is the other electrobomb?”

Kokichi stared up at him, bewildered by his request. “Huh?”

“The other electrobomb. Maki stole one, and you used one before, right?” Kaito’s brows furrowed. “You had three. You used one before, so where is the other one?”

Kokichi blinked, and with a grunt, shifted until he found the final electrobomb on his person. “H… here. Why?”

“Let me see it.”

Wordlessly, Kokichi handed over the final electrobomb, only giving Kaito a confused frown as he did so. Kaito quickly took it from Kokichi’s weak, trembling hand, and with his teeth, pulled on the handle.

Kokichi gasped as a bright light blinded them both for a moment, but it quickly faded away.

“What—what the hell?” Kokichi snarled. “Why did you waste it? What the hell are you even thinking?!”

Kaito felt a bubble of anger pop in his chest from Kokichi’s tone, but he swallowed it back down. “I didn’t waste it. It’s not like you had any better plans for it, anyway.”

“What…?” Kokichi’s eyes narrowed as he glared at Kaito, his gaze sharp and seething. “What are you… what are you planning?”

“There’s no way I can kill you,” Kaito admitted. Kokichi’s eyes widened at his words, but before he could reply, Kaito continued; “The electrobombs… if they work, then no one will know the difference if you die on that press or to the poison if you die while one’s set off, right? And…” Kaito’s eyes fell onto the press. “… No one deserves to die like that.”

“Oh, so you want me to suffer?” Kokichi spat. “Hate me th-that much, that you want me to be in pain until I die? You’re  _ sick.” _

“That’s not it at all! Jeez, what’s with you?” Kaito moved a hand to rub the back of his head. “I just… don’t think you should die alone, okay? Dying alone, being crushed to death on a cold, metal slab… That’s just too cruel even for an asshole like you. If you’re worried about your plan, don’t. I’m not gonna let Maki-Roll get executed, so I’ll still go through with it all. Besides…” Kaito fished out a small bottle from his pocket. “Who said you were gonna be in pain the whole time?”

“What… What is  _ that?” _

“Pain killers,” Kaito said as he popped the cap off of the bottle. He poured out some of the pills, and forced them into Kokichi’s hand. “You think I was just walking around coughing my lungs out without any medicine? I snagged a bunch of these from the warehouse. Wait here, I’ll be right back with some water.”

“W-what—wait…!”

Kokichi’s plea went ignored, and Kaito stood up to make his way towards the bathroom. Kaito snatched up the discarded antidote bottle, and filled it up with water at the sink.

A few moments later, he was right back at Kokichi’s side. “Here. I got you some water.”

“Gee, thanks,” Kokichi scoffed. “And what if… I don’t w-wanna take the pain killers?”

“Well, that’s on you.” Using one arm, Kaito propped Kokichi up and held the bottle of water in the other. “But something tells me that even  _ you _ aren’t that stubborn.”

Kokichi didn’t take the medicine, not immediately. Instead, he stared up at Kaito, eyes searching his features for an answer he would never find. With a tight frown, his eyes fell onto the medicine in his hand.

“… Maybe I should just down the whole bottle,” Kokichi muttered with a chuckle. Yet he didn’t sound all that amused or happy. “Make it end faster.”

Kaito huffed, maybe it was supposed to be a laugh, or maybe not. Bitter, cold feelings started stirring in his chest from Kokichi’s words. “I’d let you if I had another bottle on me. I need the rest to get through… well. You know.”

Kokichi snickered, tears gathering again in the corners of his eyes before he shoved the pain killers into his mouth. Kaito then held the bottle of water to his lips, and let him drink it until he was satisfied.

Kokichi had ended up downing the whole bottle before he started coughing, shivering, and wheezing. “I sure hope it works. I don’t w-want to be in pain for much longer. Ehe… I don’t think… I could really stand it.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

Silence fell between them, dark and heavy as Kaito listened to Kokichi’s breathing become more and more harsh. How much longer would it take for the poison to kill him? How much longer was Kokichi going to suffer?

Kaito couldn’t even look at him anymore. Not without guilt bubbling in his stomach, and threatening to explode at any moment.

Soon, Kokichi’s breathing slowed to a stop. Kaito gritted his teeth, glancing up to see if it was finally over, only to see Kokichi jump back to life with a loud gasp.

Apparently, the world wasn’t done with making him suffer.

Kokichi’s hand immediately grabbed at Kaito’s shirt, clinging to him but his eyes elsewhere, unfocused and filled with terror. “I—I don’t—” Kokichi hiccuped, sobbed, with tears streaming down the sides of his face. “ _ I don’t want to die, _ I don’t want—”

His soft, broken words made Kaito pull him in closer, squeezing his eyes shut as Kokichi buried his face into his chest and started wailing. Much like a child, afraid and devastated by the grief that his life was on the verge of coming to an end. It drew out some of Kaito’s own fear and grief, and he quietly sobbed along with him.

There were no heroes in that hanger. There were no villains. There were only two children on the brink of death, crying and grieving over the future they had stolen from them.


End file.
